Toe Cutter
Toe Cutter was a competitor robot that fought in Series 3 of Robot Wars. It reached the second round of its heat before being defeated by then-reigning champion Panic Attack there. Team Nexus members Simon and Jon Reason were also part of the Wolverine team in Series 5, joining after they failed to qualify for that series with Toe Cutter 2. Design Toe Cutter was a large, silver box-shaped robot armoured in 6mm thick aluminium sheets and featuring a unique spring-powered rotating blade as its weapon. The blade itself weighed 5kg (quoted as 3kg on the show), could fire at a speed of up to 120mph and was shown slicing a watermelon in half during the auditions. Toe Cutter took three months and cost £3500 to build, and showed good speed and manoeuvrability throughout its appearances, although its blade proved ineffective against metal and was mounted too high for it to attack lower robots. Additionally, the robot itself lacked a self-righting mechanism and was susceptible to drive problems during its battles, with both issues resulting in its defeat against Panic Attack. Etymology Toe Cutter was originally given the name Blade Runner, as a reference to the 1982 Ridley Scott film of the same name. However, this was changed at Mentorn's request before the start of Series 3, presumably to avoid copyright infringements, although the team's name, Nexus - another reference to Blade Runner - remained unchanged. Indeed, Toe Cutter still bore its original name during footage of it testing in the auditions, with Jonathan Pearce stating onscreen that Blade Runner was merely the robot's 'working title'. Toe Cutter's replacement name was, in turn, a reference to Toecutter, a motorbike gang leader who serves as the antagonist of the 1979 dystopian action film Mad Max. Qualification After Series 3, where Toe Cutter qualified for the series by running the same obstacle course performed by all applicants, Toe Cutter was modified into and renamed Toe Cutter 2, featuring two rollover plates to enable it to roll back onto its wheels whenever it was flipped. Its wheelguards were also removed, and the robot repainted white with yellow stripes to resemble a police car, as well as featuring a flashing blue light and a stuffed toy pig on its top armour. With these modifications, Toe Cutter 2 attempted to enter Series 4, but failed to qualify after it lost its qualifier battle against future series Semi-Finalist Dominator 2. It then attempted to qualify for Series 5, largely unchanged from Series 4, but again failed to do so after losing its qualifier to Cataclysmic Variabot, which also failed to qualify. Toe Cutter 2 did not enter the show again following this, although it continued to appear at live events in between and following its attempts to qualify for Robot Wars. Robot History Series 3 Toe Cutter fought in Heat K of the Third Wars, and faced Purple Predator in its first round battle. Despite starting slowly, it managed to rip part of Purple Predator's fur off after the latter tried to push it from the side, and tore another few sections of it off as both robots rubbed alongside each other. Toe Cutter then pushed Purple Predator into Dead Metal, and lingered on the Flame Pit before driving away and chasing Purple Predator around the arena. It got underneath Purple Predator as the latter was thrust into the air by an arena spike, only to be nearly turned over twice by the spike and launched away. However, Toe Cutter recovered to tear more of Purple Predator's fur off before 'cease' was called, and won the subsequent judges' decision. In the second round, Toe Cutter faced the then-reigning champion Panic Attack. Both robots started tentatively as they circled round each other, before Panic Attack got under Toe Cutter with its forks and rammed it a few times. Toe Cutter struggled to use its blade effectively and appeared to have lost drive to its right-hand wheels as Panic Attack again circled round and shoved it into Dead Metal, though Toe Cutter escaped. Panic Attack continued to push Toe Cutter before lifting it and turning it onto its back, leaving it vulnerable to attacks from the House Robots. Dead Metal cut through Toe Cutter's baseplate while Sir Killalot snapped one of its drive chains before turning it back onto its wheels and using his lance to drill through the gap between its blade and body. Sergeant Bash then attempted to snap part of Toe Cutter's blade off with his pincers before 'cease' was called, and Toe Cutter was unceremoniously eliminated from the Third Wars. Results |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 1 *Losses: 1 Series Record ToeCutterTeam.jpg|Team Nexus with Toe Cutter Toe cutter vs big brother.jpg|Toe Cutter 2 being flipped by Bigger Brother. Toe Cutter 2 (Today).jpg|Toe Cutter 2 at Brighton Modelworld in 2004. Toe Cutter 2003.jpg|Toe Cutter 2 at the Dutch Robot Games in 2003 Outside Robot Wars Toe Cutter 2 had a brief stint on the live circuit, including events such as the Debenham Robot Rumble in 2000, and Brighton Modelworld in 2004. This gave Team Nexus opportunities to fight robots such as Dominator 2. Trivia *Apart from the Series 1 auditions included as part of The Making of Robot Wars, Toe Cutter is the only robot to have footage from its audition or qualifier shown on the televised show. External Links *Toe Cutter website (Archived) Category:UK Series competitors Category:Robots from Scotland Category:Robots with Unique weapons Category:Robots with names based on film and television Category:Robots with an equal amount of Wins and Losses Category:Robots from Edinburgh Category:Robots which debuted in Series 3 Category:Robots which only fought in Series 3 Category:Robots with cameo appearances in Series 4